I bought this book after seeing it in the film God’s Not Dead 2 (2016) but didn’t get around to reading it until earlier this year.

Warner began his journey in researching the gospels after reluctantly attending a Sunday service with a coworker. The pastor painted Jesus as a smart guy, which intrigued Warner enough to buy a Bible and read the gospels for himself.

As he read, he noticed that these writings weren’t just stories but eyewitness accounts, the type of accounts he dealt with daily at work as a detective. From that point, he examined the gospels of Christ as a cold-case crime.

In his book, Warner teaches the reader how to think like a detective and scrutinize the gospels like a detective. In a just-the-facts-ma’am manner, he methodically walks the reader through his own discovery process.

Warner illustrates specific points with his own sketches. Each chapter ends with “A tool for the callout bag, a tip for the checklist” section that ties together the chapter’s main points and conclusion.

In the back of the book, the author provides a list of resources, a list of other police officers and detectives who have written books on Christianity, and a works-cited list.

https://lorindasponderings.com/2018/11/16/dusty-pages-or-divine-word-part-2/ ( )

[Cold-Case Christianity]: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospel by [[J. Warner Wallace]] is a great and objective examination of the evidence for Christianity from a cold-case detective. When J. Warner Wallace began investigating Christianity, he was not a believer. He was cynical, skeptic, biased against the supernatural. One of his first decisions was to set aside his known bias against the supernatural and examine the evidence for Christianity as he would a cold case murder. In his detailed and interesting book, he examines if the witnesses were present during Jesus' lifetime, if their testimony is corroborated by internal and external evidence, if the chain of evidence, was preserved from the original Christians to the oldest known copy of the Bible, and what the motives of the early writers were. Were they motivated by money, power, lust? This long examination led to this book and to J Warner Wallace's conversion to Christianity. Whether you are a skeptic or Christian, you will be interested in and challenged by this book. ( )

Cold-Case Christianity is a fact-based examination of Christianity from the viewpoint of a retired detective with many years of examining cases where evidence must be sorted, pieced together, and understood. J. Warner Wallace does an exceptional job of laying out the key "evidence" of the life of Jesus, the manuscripts from the disciples, and how those manuscripts were passed down intact from the mid-First Century to today. This was the first apologetics book I've seen with such an exhaustive study on the chain of possession of the New Testament manuscripts that I have seen. Cold-Case Christianity is key tool for Christians who "need to be ready to give a defense for the hope you have" in a dark world. ( )

Perfect for the Highly Skeptical Cynic, Just the Facts, Mam

J. Warner Wallace worked as a police officer, a detective, and then a cold case detective. Relying on his experience, he examines first the evidence that God exists, and then he turns to the eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus. He explains the reasoning behind the techniques that a detective utilizes to examine evidence, even examines what qualifies to utilize as evidence. The book is thoroughly researched and cited, as are documents used in a court of law. Use this book when you need solid information to answer someone who is questioning or give it to someone who could benefit from the over whelming evidence of the existence of God and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Received from NetGalley. ( )

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